Toryuken 5: My First Outing

Came back from my first Fighting Game Tournament and it was a lot of fun. I have never been to one of these things in my life but I always wanted to. I didn’t go there thinking I could beat anyone this was pretty much a trip for experience and learning and I learned a lot. You can only picture how things are so much but you need to know how the whole scene is 1:1 and there were many things I discovered for myself that is good to know now for my future doing this type of thing.

First I must state that the following opinion is only my own and I am merely writing this post for anyone who wants to know what its really like. Although for the most part people at these places are nice in the sense that they won’t bother you they are not the most welcoming bunch for new guys.

I personally could deal with this kind of thing because I keep to myself and don’t talk much anyway. But seeing it was my first time doing something this big I figured I would try the, put myself out there, approach. Even though nothing terrible happened with this approach I feel I would have been better off not doing it and I feel from now onwards I will be keeping to myself.

So I will get this little bit out of the way because it wasn’t the highlight of my fun time out its just something I feel people in my position need to know before heading out.

Also its important to note that I am not calling anyone specific out and saying this applies to every scene in the world but for most of them, from stories I heard, and applying it to my own, I came up with a very clear picture of what the actually scene is and how it works.

Unless you very young and pro level, don’t expect anyone to even care you are around. I even tried making friendly banter at opportunities that presented itself but very few people will want to engage and that’s cool, its something I need to know first hand.

If you watch streams and see groups of people and players having a great time with one another this isn’t because of the event bringing nice people together. What you see are just large clicks. Some that are friends. They are all part of their own circle. I don’t think any of these people could care less if you try to say what’s up. Its like a club. I am sure if you happen to beat a couple people they might want to chat but its highly unlikely. Again that’s cool, I prefer not talking to people myself, this was just me trying something new, I’m really not looking to make friends just trying to create less awkward environment. There were probably one or 2 guys there that were really cool and talked with everyone. I feel this is the most you can expect until you are there regularly and people warm up to you.

My advice for anyone here by themselves looking to make friends is to just play and have fun the first couple of times. Wait for someone to say something to you. Beat a few people the more you go then people might chat you up. I probably wouldn’t chat with people who are talking to me just because I beat someone but that’s just me.

Just go man. Even if you go to a small event a $5 tournament. Go, play when your done just go home its cool, keep coming back. Its all about playing living players. This is a luxury not everyone has so in that case its important to go play and keep coming back. If you are worried about confrontation, don’t. That’s an issue I didn’t have. It was just all about the awkward vibe I got from a lot of people. For the most part as long as you’re being respectable to other players they won’t bother you and if they do, fuck that place you were at and find another one. Sometimes people are just assholes and not worth the strength trying to fix.

When it comes to the top players, these guys are the nice ones, and why wouldn’t they be? People watch them and respect them. Probably a few that won’t be approachable but for the most part you can ask them stuff and they will answer you. Just remember they are people so try not to do anything that might annoy YOU.

My experience was very positive overall and nothing I stated meant I had a bad or uncomfortable time. It was just stuff I learned that you can’t understand unless you go yourself and I am fine with how it is. The whole event was pretty hype watching everyone one play, getting excited. That’s something that’s a little different in person then if you were watching on stream.

The greatest part of the whole thing was that nothing fucked up. In my life I get a lot of bad luck so I was expecting my stick to malfunction or for me to be nervous but I had no technical problems other wise I would have been a little bothered. There for I was able to play without second guessing if I was just nervous or not. I was able to get real data on how people really play and that’s exactly what I went for.
My match results.

I was entered as "Switchblade" As luck would have it in a couple of my games if I won my first match I had to go against a top fighter. They didn’t complete the bracket fill outs for Toryuken 5 as of the date of this post.

Mortal Kombat X.

I entered MKX for fun, it’s the game I played the least but I do like it. I am really bad at it so I wasn’t expecting to win any matches.

So I won my first match then I got to go up against Cr HoneyBee. Hahahahha. It was so crazy, like going 0 to 60 playing someone not very good and then one of the best. I was laughing in my chair but I tried my best. I chose Alien Acid Variation to deal with zoners so I should have played keep away best I could because you need someone with some better tools to deal with close pressure.

First round was flawless then most of the other rounds where just be getting 20 30% before getting murdered. It was a lot of fun playing such a guy, he’s actually very nice, I have attached a clip of him saying whatsapp… I mean what’s up, unfortunately most of him is cropped but still cool. Very cool guy. Was watching other games for a second after my match only to hear screams in the back as he was sent to losers after my match. Pretty shocking but he fought his way back to win 3rd place. Awesome!

In losers I had to fight MTL Jer, he used Sonya Demolition. This was a pretty messed up set. I think I was doing good the first game. Then some asshole didn’t disconnect his PS4 pad and the screen popped up. So had to restart it. This would happen 2 more times before we could actually have a sanctioned set. I couldn’t learn Sony’s high low high combo fast enough to defend against it. Once I was in the corner the guy had my number. So I lost my losers match and that was it for MKX but honestly I didn’t think I would do as good as I did.
Moving on to my next game, SFV.

This game I been playing a lot but not as much as everyone else and also not against the type of players that play here.

Street Fighter V.

So once again I win my first match and then have to fight FOX | Julio Fuentes and have to deal with his Ken. Ken is a tough character for me and having to play one of the top Ken players was rough. There are a lot of characters in SFV you just have to play patiently against and lame out, a skill I have yet to learn. So needless to say I was murdered and sent to Losers.

My opponent in losers was more my level and it was a close match but I didn’t pull it out so I was out in SFV but had a lot of fun.

Street Fighter II Super Turbo.

As much as this is still such a fun game to me I am not very good at it but I can’t stop playing it even if its against killers.

My first match was against the dude who set the whole Super Turbo game up at Toryuken and made it happen. These guys are very good I think I was only able to get a round off them. Guess I should have practiced or got a game of casuals in, not that they would let me… Moving on the next dude I played a specific cheese Deejay which I am use to but couldn’t figure out in time to get a come back but I tried.

And after that I was out. Was pretty cool seeing Justin Wong just come and kill people with Sagat. Cool to watch LordJimmyBones as well, dude is pretty crazy. Another hype dude to watch was PGH Klimax with his crazy Boxer.

So day one was done. And I had a lot of fun, had to come back for SF4.

Ultra Street Fighter 4.

They deleted the pools brackets there isn’t much to see I lost both games right off the bat. That was on my I was not playing patient so I got picked apart. I have no excuse in this game as I was very warmed up playing some nice casual sets before hand. Just need to step it up next time.

And with that my whole weekend was done and it was a blast. Had a lot of fun. I will have to check out future events because I really want to go to more.

Check out the images and Videos tabs to see my gallery’s. Thanks for reading and feel free to leave comments below!